nokia

Nokia has unveiled plans to push wireless charging heavily with the Lumia 930 launch. By this we mean the company will be bundling a free wireless charging accessory with each purchase. It’s a move we expected to see with future hardware since Microsoft joined the Wireless Power Consortium alongside Nokia and other companies.

While not as crazy as new phones, Nokia did announce a new wireless Bluetooth speaker. It’s cute, it’s small, it’s the Nokia MD-12. We weren’t expecting much from the speaker, but walked away pretty impressive by what it can do. Check our hands-on with the MD-12 below.

The Nokia MD-12 is a brand new wireless speaker system just announced at the #moreLumia event, part of the ongoing Build 2014 conference. Weighing roughly as much as an apple — har! — Nokia calls the MD-12 a "funky" new portable Bluetooth mini-speaker. It's got a built-in vibrating actuator for heavy base, and offers 15-hours of battery life so you can power your party, and your after party, and your after after party with ease.

We’re here live at Nokia’s #moreLumia event. The company already announced the Lumia 630 and Lumia 930 earlier today during Microsoft’s keynote at Build 2014. We’re expecting Nokia to go into detail about the devices and show off more accessories. Join our live blog of the event.

DVLUP, Nokia's developer outreach program, has announced a new system to better incentivize and reward their most loyal, most successful app makers. Called DVLUP Status, it introduces three new, "highly coveted" badges — Specialist (bronze), Expert (silver), and Legend (gold). Earn them and you'll be rewarded with elite privileges galore.

Today’s a very busy day for Windows Phone users and developers all over the world. A host of exciting new features in Windows Phone 8.1 have been announced today by Microsoft at Build 2014. Nokia also announced two new phones – the Lumia 630/635 and the Lumia 930. Chris Weber, Nokia’s executive vice president of global sales and marketing, is going on Twitter to answer your questions. Details below on how you can participate.

As Nokia is wont to do, when Windows Phone 8.1 starts hitting their devices it will come with a host of Nokia enhancements — in this case it's being branded as Nokia Cyan. And it's coming to all Lumia Windows Phone 8 devices. Yes, all of them. And, in typical Nokia style, the improvements will be focused around imaging.

As part of Windows Phone 8.1, users will be getting access to Nokia's HERE Drive+ for free. It will be available on all phones receiving the update. HERE Transit will also be available for free on Windows Phone 8.1.

We got a quick look at the Nokia Lumia 1520 in a striking green color at Build 2014. Unfortunately, nothing was mentioned on release date, but it's still a great addition to the already great selection of colors. It's safe to expect to see this on AT&T at some point, anyway.

As expected, Microsoft and Nokia announced the Lumia 930 at Build 2014 today. The specs are basically in line with Verizon's Icon: a 5-inch 1080p display, 20 megapixel PureView camera, 2 GB of RAM, 32 GB of internal storage, Qi wireless charging and a 2.2 GHz Snapdragon 800 processor. The bigger deal here is international availability.

It goes on sale in June starting in Europe, then on to Asia, Middle East and India for $US 599 before subsidies and taxes, if you're eager to snag one.

Microsoft is set to unveil not only Windows Phone 8.1 today, but also some other goodies for watchful eyes. Nokia will also be making headlines with new hardware announcements, including the Lumia 930. Now Twitter leakster Evleaks has published a render of the unannounced Windows Phone in all its colourful glory.

Nokia has locked down a fairly juicy enterprise contract with Spain’s CaixaBank. This will see a whooping 30,000 Lumia devices rolled out across CaixaBank’s workforce. The Lumia 925 will be deployed as the first phase of this program, while employees will have a chance to get a deal on Nokia devices for friends and family as well. Tight integration with Office apps, NFC implementation, and strong encryption are just some of the reasons CaixaBank cited for their choice.

Some will argue that the one device missing from the Windows Phone ecosystem is a smartwatch. There are plenty alternatives out there but nothing that lends itself to the Modern UI of the Windows family.

Windows Phone Central member taymur has started this discussion in the WPCentral Forums suggesting we may see an announcement of a smartwatch from Nokia sooner than later. His hunch is based on the upcoming press conference from Nokia and the presser’s announcement graphics. The event tagged as “More” has a rotating set of symbols for the ‘O’ in More that includes a clock face.

We still expect to see the Nokia Lumia 630 and Lumia 930 announced at the press event, but our sources say no smartwatch will be on the table for Wednesday's event. Instead, look for something more towards September after Windows Phone 8.1 gets its first update. But what does the future hold for a Windows Phone smartwatch?

The Nokia 3310 is an iconic phone. Nokia released the mobile phone way back in the fourth quarter of 2000. It went on to sell over 126 million units. The inability to run Windows Phone is by far the biggest drawback of trying to use the Nokia 3310 today. Which is why we’re pretty stoked that Nokia is giving the 3310 a modern refresh. Live tiles and 41-megapixel sensor? Sign us up!

To celebrate the eight glorious years of Earth Hour and endorsing use of renewable energy, WWF India (www.wwfindia.org) and Nokia joined hands to develop an official app for Earth Hour 2014.

As part of the annual Earth Hour, people across the world switch off the lights for one hour in celebration of the world’s largest voluntary environmental action. Earth Hour this year will be celebrated by hundreds of millions of people in 7001 cities and towns across 152 countries.

Nokia and Microsoft both expect the acquisition of Nokia's handset unit to close in April. The two companies sent out their own press releases moments ago announcing an update on the acquisition. The regulatory process is expected to close sometime during next month. As we previously reported, the two companies had hoped to finish the deal sometime before mid-April. However, rulings in India and regulatory pause by Asian parties over potential patent abuse slowed the process.

Nokia teamed up with National Geographic photographer Stephen Alvarez (@alvarephoto) last summer to promote the launch of the Nokia Lumia 1020. Stephen and Nokia took the Lumia 1020 to the Grand Canyon in the United States to produce some stellar images. The partnership continues as Stephen recently visited Rio de Janeiro, Brazil to capture more beautiful images with the Lumia 1020 and the Lumia 1520. Check out the incredible video and a few images after the break.